[Steve Howland]

Last year 571 was not planning on going to nationals at all but when the opportunity arose, we realized that we wanted to go but didn't really have the funding for it. We went to our sponsors and some of them volunteered a little boost in funding because of our success. We also had each student pay about $300 to go.

At first we were not sure if everyone would be able to go because of funding. We added up the money on the last few days, and it turned out everyone who could go went, but before then all of the seniors were going, along with the most active juniors. We should have based the decision on who should go more on activity level instead of what grade members are in, but everyone got to go for us, so it turned out alright. For your team I would recommend you take: Drivers, repair people, any active builders, then perhaps a few scouters, but mainly those who have helped on the team in other aspects, such as animation, programming, or website design.